Germany urged to be carbon-neutral by 2040

In the run-up to the German federal elections later this year, around 140 aid and climate organisations have urged all the competing political parties to significantly raise the country's climate targets, the Climate Alliance said.

"What the next German government decides will have an impact on our greenhouse gas emissions over the next 20 to 30 years," Xinhua news agency quoted Christiane Averbeck, Executive Director of Climate Alliance Germany, as saying in a statement on Monday.

Germany should seek to achieve climate neutrality by 2040, 10 years earlier than officially planned, according to a paper drafted by Climate Alliance Germany, a social alliance for climate protection.

The paper urged the future German government to "rapidly and ambitiously expand renewable energy", particularly wind power and photovoltaics, in order to decarbonise the industrial, building and transport sectors.

Renewable energies would need to achieve a share of "at least 75 per cent of the expected increase in gross electricity consumption" by 2030, the paper noted.

Germany's official government target is 65 per cent.

The country would also need to accelerate its coal phase-out to 2030 and completely phase out fossil oil and gas by the early 2040s, according to the paper.

The next German government should also present a "specific timetable" for the abolition of environment and climate-damaging subsidies, the Climate Alliance added.